"Of all lies, art is the least untrue." -Gustave Flaubert

Main menu

Tag Archives: MFA

Ten days from today is my last (actually my only) final exam and the first day of this term’s Open Studios. (invitation: http://public.sva.edu/evite/openstudios/) Then my first year as an MFA candidate will be over. One more year to go. And will I have mastered the issues I’m struggling with in my art? Will I have gotten any teaching or writing job offers? Will I have managed to get rid of the growing pile of old art that sits in the middle of my small living room like a post-modern tepee? I’m tempted to burn it, but I’d have to move my sofa and disable the sprinkler system and prepare for the fire department to arrest me… well, you see why the pile is growing.

My first year has been frustrating, exasperating, exhilarating, and did I mention frustrating? I have not taken up drinking or smoking, but my language is admittedly saltier than when I first got here. And sometimes I write it on the walls of my studio. In big black letters. My teachers push me hard to change what I’m doing. It’s their job, and I appreciate the creative ways they torture me. (More salty language.) It’s time to take what I’ve learned this year and begin to plan the work I’ll make for my MFA exhibition and my written thesis. Time is fleeting. (Does that make you think of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, or is that just me? Is there a thesis topic hidden in there somewhere? No. No. Stop it.)

Boyoun Kim, BFA Fine Arts, PrintmakingSecret Pleasure

Boyoun Kim,BFA Fine Arts, PrintmakingSummer

So the long explanation of why my blog posts have gotten a teensy bit scarce is that I’m busy biting my fingernails and getting ready for the term end. In addition to my exam, I have two group critiques, term review by two strangers, and three days of sitting in my studio trying not to scare off the art-lookers who wander by. They would really rather look in my studio when I’m not there, but what if one of them wants a conversation? What if one of them is a curator? Conundrum. Maybe I’ll just loiter in the hallway as if I am a civilian and then pounce if they look interested. That wouldn’t be creepy at all.

Michael Lee, BFA Fine ArtsCastillo

But in the middle of anguish, there is always art. Especially in New York. Yesterday as I was headed into my studio building I noticed two new exhibitions on the ground floor. Both were by undergraduates. One was posters of movies made by the students in the digital art department. And the other was a beautifully curated small show of BFA students from several different departments.

If it were a horse race, the SVA MFA Fine Arts candidates would win going away.

Sara Mejia Kreindler

Rob Campbell

Brian Whiteley

For reasons only slightly known, apparently having to do with booking the gallery, the thesis shows (the class is divided into two shows) are held in January and February before graduation.

Nick Fyhrie

David Jacobs

Naormi Wang

Emily Langmade

I’ve just had my first look at the second thesis show, Split Ends, and was really impressed by the quality of work, the ambition and scale of the installation projects, and how different it is from the first thesis show, We Object.

Feng-Tsung Chan

Dongsuk Lee

This exhibition is primarily installation, sculpture, and video, while the first show was dominated by painting, drawing, and other flat media.

Keith Hoffman

Anna Costa e Silva

I’ve seen most of the Split Ends work develop over the year in the studio, and it is remarkably different when presented in a gallery – transformed by the space, and transforming the space in turn – in a way that doesn’t happen with paintings.

Kwantaeck Park

Part of that comes simply from having to unmake, move, and then remake found-object sculptures and assemblages. Part of it is that in a new space the artist makes new decisions, again in a way that is unlike paintings.

Jamie Sneider

Denise Treizman

This show has dramatic lighting, lots of recorded voices and soundtracks, and impingement of art pieces on one another. Or is that infringement? Or collaboration? In any case, it creates energy and a show that is worth experiencing.

The Visual Arts Gallery is at 601 West 26th Street, 15th Floor, and the exhibition remains up until March 9th.

The way I figure it, our first semester in SVA’s MFA Fine Arts program is for getting our feet wet, finding the art supply stores, and convincing ourselves that we haven’t made the biggest mistake of our life.

Patrick Shoemaker

Billy Ogawa

Zaza Acevedo

Mark deWilde

Semester number two is when we start to make art that matters. But we’re still all over the map. We’re juggling subject matter, media, color, meaning, fabrication, and

Jessica Bowman

installation issues. At least. Because making art is the hardest thing we’ve ever done, and now we’re trying to be good at it, while people watch and criticize. And we’re still not sure it isn’t a mistake to spend oh-my-god how much money? in order to leave ourselves less employable than before we started.

Autumn-Grace Dougherty

Which gives the fine arts students only the first semester of their second year to make everything that goes into their MFA thesis

Yae Ly

Denise Hwa-In Yoon

show. Make it. Make it coherent and meaningful. Make it visually and intellectually arresting. And, by the way, how’s that written thesis coming?

Tina Han

The show We Object (curated by Wallace Whitney) which is open at SVA’s Visual Arts Gallery (601 West 26th Street, suite 1502) displays work from half of the class of 2013. The other half will be shown next month. I only give you the timeline so that you will understand the pressure under

Sohee Koo (S. Art K.)

Eric Graham

which this art was created – pressure that doesn’t show in the art itself, which is, by turns, playful, skilled, vibrant, unusual, unsettling, disciplined, undisciplined, unexpected, and arresting.

Bo Kim

Chi Zhang

A thesis show by its nature has no common theme. It is a group of works not created to stand together but forced to share visual and actual space. Sometimes that’s a weakness, but not in We Object.

Pantelis Klonaris

This is art that would work alone, but also works wonderfully in a group show. It argues, creates contrasts, creates synergies, and surprises the viewer. After seeing

So Na Lee

all of the galleries that combine to make up the show, I found myself starting over in the first room to see it all again. It is a feast; not moveable like Paris, but still ephemeral. These artists may never show together again, and this exhibit closes on January 26th.